Where Your Branding Agency Can’t Be: E-mail Etiquette and Its Importance

02 Jul Where Your Branding Agency Can’t Be: E-mail Etiquette and Its Importance

The first thing we are taught in school, apart from proper hand washing, is proper grammar. It follows us throughout our entire curriculum; that red ink that riddles essays also riddles our nightmares. Grammar was something we knew we had to keep up with, something that meant we were paying attention and that we were aiming for directness in our words and ideas. It showed respect and conscientiousness to the reader. It set us apart from the animals!

What happened?

In our vastly modernized world of texting, snapchatting, flip switching and fly swatting (insert another awkward noun/adjective here), we’ve lost the great art and courtesy of a well thought out sentence, condolence or congratulation. And these three items all encompass the keys that are required in maintaining a great morale and a likeable character for employees and clients.

You may be thinking, “Isn’t that why I have a branding agency? To make me look good?”

No; for two reasons:

1. While it’s true that a branding agency can direct and enhance your positive qualities and help you tell the world who you are, if you aren’t a courteous person when no one is around, regardless of the logos and prosperity, you’ll eventually run yourself into the gutter. Business is about relationships and relationships are about people, and people will always find out the truth eventually.
2. Your branding agency is not your voice; it’s the well-planned megaphone that elevates and defines your voice, making it resonate with consumers. At the end of the day, the words that come from you must be your own. And your branding agency can’t monitor your minor interactions; which often become the most prominently scrutinized and misunderstood interactions.

Yes, you may think that typo or poorly capitalized paragraph won’t be a big deal, but if you’re corresponding with a potential client, it’s all they might see. If you can’t take the time or muster the respect to draft a complete and coherent sentence, then how can your potential clients expect you to do the same in your work and services? It sets an ugly picture of who you are, sometimes even before you’ve had the chance to meet.

‘That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.’

-Raymond Carver

So what must you do? Simple: refine, retune and revamp your grammatical know-how and etiquette when it comes to social correspondence. Pull out that old Strunk and White that’s been gathering dust since college. Hit that ‘spell check’ button before you send that e-mail, and make sure your words convey the spirit of your message. You will see a huge difference in how your clients, employees and colleagues respond to this change.

Visual Caffeine is a boutique full-service marketing agency. Known as brand storytellers, Visual Caffeine offers in-house treatments for Marketing, Branding, Social Media, Web Design, Graphic Design, Copywriting, Web Development, App Development, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Content Writing and more. Founded by Cheale Villa in 1998 in Michigan, Visual Caffeine delivers the best Branding and Marketing to the Charlotte area and beyond.